GDC: Gears of War Cleans Up At Awards

The Game Developers Choice Awards results are in, and Gears of War is top of the pile. It's followed closely by Okami and Wii Sports.

Gears of War walked away with three awards under its belt. It scooped awards for technology, visual arts and the coveted 'best game' award. It was a close-run battle, though. Okami and Wii Sports both followed closely with two awards each. Both got an award for innovation, while Okami took the honours for character design and Wii Sports was rewarded for its game design.

The Developers Choice Awards is the only event of its kind in the gaming industry in that it's the only peer-based awards programme.

The finalists were announced a month ago and comparing the two lists there are a couple of surprise absentees in the winners ranks. Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion failing to pick anything up after getting four nominations is strange, for one. It's also a shame to see that Rockstar's Canis Canem Edit failed to scoop anything after getting three nominations.

Take a look at the complete winners list below.

Best Game

Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Cliff Bleszinski, Michael Capps, Rod Fergusson

Audio

Guitar Hero II (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
- Jeff Allen, Eric Brosius, Izzy Maxwell

Character Design

Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
- Mari Shimazaki, Sawaki Takeyasu, Kenichirou Yoshimura

Game Design

Wii Sports (Nintendo)
- Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

Technology

Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Michael Capps, Ray Davis, Tim Sweeney, Daniel Vogel

Visual Arts

Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Jerry O'Flaherty, Chris Perna

Writing

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
- Kyogoku Aya, Nate Bihldorff, Mitsuhiro Takano

New Studio

Iron Lore Entertainment (Titan Quest)
- Paul Chieffo, Jeff Goodsill, Brian Sullivan

Innovation

Line Rider
- Boštjan Cadež

Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
- Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya

Wii Sports (Nintendo)
- Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

Recipients for the evening's special awards were:

Lifetime Achievement
Shigeru Miyamoto

First Penguin
Alexey Pajitnov

Maverick
Greg Costikyan

Community Contribution
George “The Fat Man” Sanger